Sign of the times: When the well dries up everbody's dry

Obama as FDR Gorbachev: Trying to preserve a dying system (Richard Miniter, Forbes)

Bottom line up front: The trouble with living off government handouts is that eventually the government runs out of other people's money to tax and spend.

Contra the main stream media propaganda fluff President Obama is not the new FDR or LBJ but is actually a man trying like crazy to prevent the demise of a political system he desperately loves and wants to preserve.

"This week’s fight over raising the federal debt limit", says Miniter this week in Forbes.com/, "exposes a key weakness in the warfare-welfare state that has bestowed power onto the Democratic Party: Without an ever-growing share of the economy, it dies. Every vital element of the Democrats’ coalition — unions, government workers, government contractors, 'entitlement' consumers — requires constant increases in payments, grants and consulting contracts. Without those payments, they don’t sign checks to re-elect Democrats."

True that. And the GOP has it's parasites who seek the same sort of stuff when they're in power too. In fact minus out the unions and add the so-called "defense" contractors and it's the same list. Whatever. The point here is that the pie itself is shrinking. And that particular reality is bi-partisan.

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CEO Beauty contest: The winners get the most money - Economic Times

If you look the part of a competent CEO you get more money whether in fact you are competent or not.

Blue states have Red families - National Journal

"The postindustrial economy puts a premium on skill and cognitive ability. A high school education or less no longer offers very good prospects. Blue-collar wages fall, so a factory job no longer cuts it if, that is, you can even find a factory job."

The Welfare State's Death Spiral - Real Clear Politics (Robert Samuelson)

In defense of Pit Bulls - Lewrockwell.com (Matt Robison)
In praise of militias - New American (Becky Akers)
"Militias, i.e., armed citizens, don’t go adventuring. They don’t fight phantoms either, no matter how many 'wars' politicians declare on drugs or terror. Instead, they defend their homes and neighborhoods from attack — genuine, physical assault — then return to earning a living."
Ancient comet fragments found in Arctic ice - Cosmos
The Lost Tribes of Radio Shack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home - Wired
The Shack used to be a cool place to hang out and meet up with techo-geeks and DIY electronics people. Then in the 80's they started asking for your name, address, and phone number when you bought stuff (even if you paid cash) and which was probably the most ham handed and blatant attempt to data-mine their customers in American business history. Didn't like that at all. Now they are trying to go upscale and forget all about their core client base of DIYers and tinkerers. That's what is gonna finally kill off RS. They should have moved outta the big malls too, because the high rents there tend to discourage the mom & pop type proprietors RS shops in favor of the corporate owned ones
where the sale staff don't know shit about the stuff they sell.